We’re babysitting our inlaw “pup” since Thursday night, a 1 yo ADHD lab called Balto. Our cats are terrified, Arthur, perhaps needing medical attention to a war wound, won’t come in at all, but I was hoping that keeping the house divided in half would at least prevent any mad chasing. This also means I’ll have to stay in the room with the dog most of the time or he’d bark everyone’s heads off (even more than he does in my face). Morning, noon and in the middle of the night. When he’s not attempting to sleep on my feet. The three younger cats never met Max, they only knew an elderly and very sedate Molly.
While chugging away at my suffolk/dorset roving, I was thinking of the many plant dyed kilos of ditto upstairs, which has to be fluffed and handpicked to loosen most of the tiny plant particles embedded, before it can be carded into batts/rolags. And decided I needed help with that. If you don’t make that effort, the VM just stays in there or on the drumcarder, forever polluting the next fibers and the next.
This post was actually created in April when I thought I was on a spinning binge (which, as usual, was interrupted and never returned to). Deeply convinced I’d be doing all sorts of yarny things all summer long! What really happens is that I never do as many fibery things as I expect/imagine, no matter what season is passing by. I just have to stop deluding myself that I live on a desert island. 😉
My friend Nina happened to pass by this alpaca being shorn a few weeks ago, and clever her asked what they did with it. So here’s one side for me and the other side went to another wool craving friend. 🙂
I love it when things can be made from the “what’s in the woodshed” principle as well as having more than one purpose. I’ve previously shown you my blending hackle, here it is without fun fur on. I made the tines from welding rods and sharpened each one by hand, they’re very strong:
I also have a homemade swift. I tend to never get to the point where I polish and paint these contraptions, although I do love beautiful tools. I’m simply too busy using them, that’s all, and I know I’m not much of a carpenter anyway.
I use the pegs from the swift with these crude pieces of lumber to warp both directly and – eventually – indirectly. In summer I’m going to find a wall space outside to fix them vertically, as this will make running the yarn back and forth much easier on my back than leaning over the table.
direct warping a wide loom with multiple pegs
Measuring a 3 m. Ø skein for space dyeing a pooling warp (or so the plan goes). By moving the pegs AND the bars further apart, I can make virtually any length of warp I desire, there are 8 pegs total. One can hold the cone of yarn!
I can also use the pegs and bars to strap poles onto if I want to make a navajo style warp for my large tapestry loom.
I meant to include an image of my homemade tapestry loom, but we ran into a small problem and didn’t get it finished on Sunday. I’m going to have a look at it and see if I can come up with a new idea for the last bit. It’s functional as it is, but I want to include multiple leash rods I think they’re called. Homemade shedding device kinda thing.
I also made a few spindles before I got my wheel. I don’t use them very often now I have to admit, but they work very well, especially the 14 g which I used to make a lace shawl. I too dream of Goldings and Bosworths, but I’d rather have more fiber.
